Who Am I?

Hi, I'm Frederik L. Schodt.
You'll note that my first name, "Frederik," doesn't have a "c" in it, which makes me somewhat unusual, it seems. I was named after King Frederik IX of Denmark, and while I never met him, I understand he was a fine fellow, so I don't mind being named after him. Oddly, I notice that on English Wikipedia they spell his name with a "c," so go figure. My last name, "Schodt," (pronounced "shot," as in "shotgun," here in America) is also Danish and complicated. For years, this was a bit of a problem for me, almost a curse, since no one could ever spell my name right. Now, however, I realize that difficult names are something of an advantage. In the age of mass-everything, uniqueness is good. And in the Internet age, when doing Google searches, odd spellings are particularly good! I'm easy to find. Oh, I nearly forgot. My middle name is "Lowell." I was named after L. Bruce Laingen, an old family friend. In 1979-81, he experienced considerable notoriety as the chargé d'affaires at the United States embassy in Tehran, when he was held hostage for fourteen months. Ironically, he doesn't use his real first name. I don't know why, but maybe it's because "Lowell" has lots of "l"s, which are hard for some people to pronounce.

What do I do?

I'm a writer, translator, and conference interpreter. I also do some public speaking. I'm very diversified and specialized at the same time. That way, I never get rich, but I never get bored. Most of my interpreting is simultaneous and technology-oriented, Japanese-English, yet that part of my career is not the main focus of this website; the books and translations and associated trivia are. Almost everything that I do is in some fashion designed to facilitate communication between people in North America and Japan. A lot of people think that I only do work related to manga or anime, but actually my writings and translations are considerably broader in scope. I've written books on popular culture, history, and technology, and translated everything from government documents to literature. Since manga and anime have become quite popular outside of Japan, I recently have many young people ask me how they can become a professional manga or anime translator, "like me." My response may sound disappointing, but as popular as manga and anime are today, I know very few people who actually make a living translating manga and anime exclusively; most are forced to work in other areas as well. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done!
I also have more and more people asking me how to become a published writer, and I honestly don't have very many good recommendations. It's not easy, and it involves a lot of luck. But that also doesn't mean it shouldn't be tried!

What do I look like?

TThe portraits/mug shots below were rendered by a Panasonic artificial vision system. The one on the left was drawn by a robot, the robot arm holding an ink-soaked brush and tracing the outlines generated by the vision system. The one on the right was output as a rubber stamp, which I used to create an image on paper that was then scanned into a computer. Do the images really look like me? Do I even exist? You guess!

The February 1999 issue of the British magazine, Manga Max, described the Revolver Ocelot action figure as a "Fred Schodt-look-alike." Revolver's a character from the popular Konami video game, Metal Gear Solid, and the action figures are made by McFarlane Toys. You can view Revolver from all sorts of angles with a variety of information by clicking here. I don't normally carry two pistols or wear a trenchcoat. I'm actually a relatively peaceful person. The drawing below is by Nanae Inoue, before a hair cut.

And here's a portrait of me, done years ago, by Yoshiyuki Tomino, of Gundam fame. He's a very good artist, and made me look better than real life.

Where do I live?

II live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and have for a very long time. Why do I live in the Bay Area? I grew up in the United States, Norway, Australia, and Japan, and chose to live here because, frankly, it's a very beautiful place and once you get used to the weather it's hard to leave.
It's also a very cosmopolitan area, with many different people and languages and a slightly European/Asian flavor, which makes me feel comfortable. And it's within minutes of fabulous natural parks and wilderness areas and even the Pacific Ocean, all of which also make me feel comfortable.

Why is this website named "JAI²"?

Well, when I first built this web site I wanted something
short and easy to remember. JAI doesn't appear in the English dictionary,
which is odd, since it is so short and seems so easy to pronounce. But
it is a word that I happen to like the sound of and it fits my requirements.
I first heard it, or thought I heard it, from Ram Dass, in the context
of a chant he did around 1972 not too long after returning from India.
The chant went something like Govinda jai jai...; but in retrospect,
it may have been Govinda jaya jaya... You can hear a very
cool souped up world-beat pop version of this chant on a cut titled "Light
of Love" on the 1993 CD Jungle Book by the apparently Krishna-inspired German group Dissidenten (except that in their version jai sounds more like jei). It's put out by Worldly Dance Music [#7202-2]. There's also another
version of this chant on a CD titled "Monkey," by an American gentleman named --what else?-- Jai Uttal. The track
is titled "Govinda" and the CD is issued by Triloka Records,
1992 [#7194-2]. This CD includes the words to the chant, which is described
as a "traditional Hindu prayer," in the liner notes. Here they are:

Govinda Jaya Jaya

Gopala Jaya Jaya

Radha Ramana Har

Govinda Jaya Jaya

Radhe Radhe Radhe Shyam

Radhe Bolo Sita Ram

Radha Ramana Hari

Govinda Jaya Jaya

You'll notice here, that it isn't jai, but jaya.
I've been told that this is a Sanskrit word, perhaps meaning victory; or praise, or hail or something honorific. To me, though, neither jaya nor jei are as important as JAI, which has a significance all of its own (oh, yes, and by the way, before going any further I should mention that I'm not a Krishna devotee, or even, as Swami X might have said, a "Harvey Kirshman."). Long ago, when I lived with a dear group of friends, JAI became a word that represented all good things, so that's the association that I like to maintain. It was also the name of a very special black cat of mine.... In fact, JAI can be almost anything you can imagine! If you'd prefer, JAI could also be an acronym, I suppose. It could be the Japanese American Institute or the Javanese Armadillo Inquiry, or my personal favorite: Just Anything Interesting.

So why JAI(²)? you might ask. In chants and music jaya or jei are usually used in pairs; jai jai it has a nice ring to it when repeated. Besides, two JAIs must be better than one, and if so, JAI (squared), or an exponential increase, must be even better yet. Of course, many people ask how they can enter the exponential "2" in a web site address, but I'll leave that up to your imagination.

More Information

For general category entry points, click home, and the various categories in the headers and subheadings on this website. Don't forget to check out scheduled talks, etc. And for my bibliography, which has most everything I've ever written in my entire life, take a look HERE. For those who still want more information on me, I have been interviewed dozens--if not hundreds--of times over the years, and many of the interviews are easy to find on the web. Here's a very early one, in Don Philippi's Technical Japanese Translation newsletter, No. 7, September 1983.